Erel Margalit knows what it takes to build a successful venture, the founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), has overseen the successful sale or public offering of 23 portfolio companies, more than any other Israel-based investor.

Erel was previously named to Forbes magazine’s vaunted “Midas List” of top venture capitalists, chosen Israel’s top venture capitalist by The Marker, the business publication of Ha’aretz, and was honored by Private Equity International which selected JVP as Israel’s number one venture capital firm and among the three most successful funds in Europe. Mr Margalit is also featured prominently in the best-selling book Start Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, which is placed in the entry hall of Procter & Gamble’s office in Israel. Full bio here.

What is Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP)?

Erel Margalit is the founder and head of JVP, Jerualem Venture Partners, a leading Israeli venture capital firm dedicated to building world class media technology companies. Established in 1993, JVP now has over $900 million under management and is investing in 35 companies.

JVP has had 23 exits, including the sale in 2000 of optical networking firm Chromatis to Lucent Technologies for $4.8 billion. In 2010 QlickTech went public on Nasdaq and JVP turned a $9 million investment in the Swedish software company into a $450 million return for investors. JVP was also the seed investor in Netro Corporation; JVP sold its position when the company was traded on NASDAQ for $5.5 billion. Additionally, JVP was the largest shareholder in Precise, selling its position in 2001 when the market cap was in the range of $700 million, and in Cogent Communications, which was trading on NASDAQ at a market cap of $1.2 billion in March 2007 when JVP sold its position.

JVP has a broad network of co-investors such as HarbourVest, Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs and Battery Ventures.

Interview

Erel first advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to be well rounded and mingle with people of different backgrounds.

Engineers alone won’t make it. We need to put engineers together with writers, storytellers, advertising people, artists… We need to know how to put a smile on the face of a 16 years old girl if we are to succeed. An army of engineers alone can’t succed.